Cleaning machines are used extensively for cleaning flooring surfaces comprised of tile, stone, brick, wood, concrete, carpets and other common surfaces. Maintaining the cleanliness of these surfaces, especially in high volume areas in commercial, industrial, institutional and public buildings is an ongoing and time consuming process. The present invention relates to a highly maneuverable floor cleaning or treatment apparatus (hereinafter “treatment apparatus”) that supports an operator during use. More specifically, some embodiments of the present invention are adapted to clean, sweep, vacuum, burnish, wax, etc. (hereinafter “treat”) a floored surface, wherein the operator is supported by the cleaning device, thus increasing efficiency and productivity of the cleaning operation. As used herein, “floored surface”, or more generally “surface”, encompasses areas covered by concrete, tile, carpet, wood, plastic, stone, turf or any other substance known in the art. The prior devices address many issues that arise with cleaning such floored surfaces. Unfortunately, prior to the present invention, there was no one device that could address many, if not all, of the issues that arise in cleaning various surfaces in various environments at any given point in time.
A. Mop & Bucket Cleaning Devices
In the past, building maintenance staff and others often treat surfaces, such as tiled hallways or restroom floors, using traditional mop and bucket techniques. The bucket may include a detachable mop ringer and may be positioned on caster wheels to facilitate easy movement. Depending on the cleanliness of the equipment, a worker may be able to make a good start in treating a floor using the mop and bucket approach. However, soon the mop and fluid in the bucket becomes soiled or otherwise contaminated by germs and/or bacteria. From that point on, each time the worker plunges the mop into the bucket and rings the mop, both the mop and cleaning fluid become more and more dirty/contaminated.
B. Manually Propelled Cleaning Devices
The basic cleaning problems associated with the prior art mop & bucket approach to cleaning a surfaces have generally been addressed in the art, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,980 to Robinson, entitled “Multi-functional Cleaning Machine,” which is fully incorporated herein by reference. This type of cleaning machine generally includes a manually propelled wheeled body with two tanks, one concentrated chemical receptacle, a vacuum and blower motor and a fluid pumping system. Typically, such equipment includes only a single motor used for both vacuuming soiled fluid and blowing air that can be used to dry a cleaned surface. While such equipment is generally maneuverable and is an improvement over the earlier mop and bucket technology, the system is still labor intensive and slow. As a result, productivity of cleaning professionals, when using these type of systems is generally decreased over what it might be with other type of systems that are available.
C. Self Propelled Walk Behind Device
Productivity concerns have been addressed in the art by the creation of certain walk behind floor treatment apparatus. These apparatus typically have a scrub deck at machine's front and a squeegee at its rear. The squeegee has the ability to “swing” or follow the path of the scrub deck as the machine changes direction. This type of equipment is generally more efficient in cleaning large surface areas than either the mop and bucket or the manually propelled devices. Unfortunately, however, the distance between the scrub deck and squeegee is relatively great. Also, walkbehinds typically have relatively wide squeegees. These characteristics limit such machine's maneuverability and limit the doorways they can easily pass through. Typical 3′ doorway allows a machine with no more than a 33″ squeegee to fit through without removal.
Small walk behind floor cleaning apparatus typically include a scrub deck in the middle of the machine and squeegees at the machine's rear. In this configuration the squeegee has little or no ability to swing or follow the path of the scrub deck as the machine changes direction. Small rider scrubbers typically have relatively narrow squeegees, and rely on “side squeegees” (unvacuumized squeegee blades) adjacent to the scrub deck to direct the water into the path of the main (vacuumized) squeegee. The problem with these side squeegees is that they do not perform very well for very long and tend to leave a film of water in turns because the vacuumized squeegee does not follow the true path of the scrub deck, only the path of the side squeegees (which leave the film of water). Finally, side squeegee are typically very heavy rubber blades and have significant down-pressure applied to them to direct the water—this makes them expensive and causes significant “drag” which increases the work for the propel unit and limits battery run-time. Thus, while more maneuverable than larger walk behind floor treatment machines, the small machines typically do not clean as well as the larger machines.
D. Storage Issues in Prior Art Devices
Further, known cleaning machines do not provide adequate onboard storage for cleaning supplies, tools, etc. Likewise, prior art machines do not often provide a flexible approach to adding storage facilities for trash and the like when the need for such arises. Machinery that addresses these issues is therefore needed.
E. Self-propelled Ride-on Devices
Self-propelled cleaning devices are generally also well known in the field and are employed to treat large floored surfaces, such as tiled, concrete or carpeted floors found in hospitals, department stores, schools, gyms, etc. These devices generally provide the operator with seating from which he/she can control operation of the device. These devices are ideal for cleaning large, open areas because they are capable of containing large amounts of waste fluids and/or debris without having to repeatedly perform time consuming fluid replacement or debris removal. Moreover, because these devices provide the user with seating, the user does not become prematurely fatigued, increasing overall worker productivity. Unfortunately, these large ride-on machines are not particularly well-suited for cleaning smaller, more confined floor surfaces, which are often found in hallways, small rooms, or even large rooms which have many obstacles therein.
As is well known in the art, smaller self-propelled cleaning devices are also in existence that are ideal for cleaning the smaller rooms and hallways. However, smaller devices are usually pushed or pulled by an operator. Hence, the major drawback of these devices is that they often rely on operator strength to maneuver the device. Even if the device is self-propelled, it often employs manual steering. After a long shift of walking behind a treatment device, the operator is bound to become fatigued, wherein his or her attention will deviate from the task at hand, thereby possibly resulting in uneven treatment to the floored area. Thus, a subsequent crew may have to return and retouch certain areas that were not accurately treated during the first operation. In addition, human errors related to the amount of time a surface is exposed to a brush, may occur when the operator lingers over a single area for extended period of time. This situation is never good for a floor surface. The devices in the art are also difficult to maneuver and often are not adapted to operate around tight corners, wherein pre or post cleaning operations must be performed, thus increasing the time and expense of the entire task.
Thus, it is a long felt need in the field of floor cleaning or treatment to provide a device that allows the operator to ride thereon, and which is adapted to be used in small areas and/or around tight corners. The following disclosure describes an improved floor cleaning and treatment device that is adapted for use in small areas that includes a platform adapted to support the operator to ensure optimum floor cleaning or treatment.